Today’s interview is with Nick Barlow, who is in charge of Creative and Media for Small Batch Coffee – a Brighton based (and local to me) ‘Boutique Coffee Roaster’ who sell coffee online (retail and wholesale) and also operate 7 coffee shops/vans around Brighton, Sussex. Nick joins me today to talk about the Small Batch Coffee, their story, social media and how they have used it to serve their customers, solve their problems and build better relationships with them.

Another key to the Small Batch Coffee success story is customer service and the people that they employ.

Although they pride themselves on having a culture of friendliness and service, much of that isn’t written down. It just tends happens through the sort of people that they recruit. Their culture gets passed on by their existing staff.

Like many coffee retailers they do run a traditional, card-based loyalty programme. They have also seen a number of loyalty apps but none of them have been compelling enough for them to change or trial one.

They believe that if they provide great service and great coffee from great people then that will earn them loyalty.

Having grown the business with effectively no marketing budget, they have found social media to be indispensable to be able to engage with their customers and respond to queries and complaints.

They don’t worry too much about any rules guiding how they respond. However, they have learned that the ‘tone’ and punctuation of the language you use on Twitter is extremely important and can be dangerous if, for example, you put an exclamation mark in the wrong place.

However, if they are faced with a complaint or an issue, one practice they do do is ask people to email them directly. This allows them to take the issue offline but also gives the customer a better chance to provide a more detailed explanation of the issue at hand and they can provide a more detailed and appropriate response than they could in 140 characters.

If someone has been motivated to complain then they probably feel strongly about what they are saying.

Bad customer service spreads 15 times faster and further than good customer service.

Social customer service is pretty straightforward really.

Their main focus going forward is to further develop their wholesale and online business. Check out their online shop and their coffee subscription service. All coffee ordered comes with taster notes and information about the farms that the beans have come from.

Check out their new film that they have just made that tells more of the story of the company, their farmers and their sourcing model.

About Nick

Nick graduated with a degree in Contemporary History from the University of Sussex in 2004. Following that he spent 3 years with Life Water working in Design and Social Media before joining Small Batch Coffee. He describes his role on LinkedIn as Designer, head of marketing & social media…and occasional barista.

Hi James,
I have lots of ideas but none of them are any good unless leadership are committed to an ideal of delivering great service. When that’s not in place then everything is hard. Also, the trouble is that many think that ‘good enough’ is a standard worth aspiring to. Too few are willing to innovate, do something different and take risks…….as it could have too much of an impact on their bonus and pension payments!

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About Me

I’m a huge fan of organisations that do great things for their customers and their employees and I’m a helper to many wanting to achieve their own level of greatness. I’m also a lover of simplicity and advocate of the human touch with a bit of really useful technology thrown in.

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About Me

I’m a huge fan of organisations that do great things for their customers and their employees and I’m a helper to many wanting to achieve their own level of greatness. I’m also a lover of simplicity and advocate of the human touch with a bit of really useful technology thrown in.